” In a deliberate “show of force,” federal and local police forces raided a political meeting in Texas, fingerprinting and photographing all attendees as well as confiscating all cell phones and personal recording devices.

Members of the Republic of Texas, a secession movement dedicated to restoring Texas as an independent constitutional republic, had gathered Feb. 14 in a Bryan, Texas, meeting hall along with public onlookers. They were debating issues of currency, international relations and celebrating the birthday of one of their oldest members. The group, which describes itself as “congenial and unimposing,” maintains a small working government, including official currency, congress and courts.

According to MySanAntonio.com: “Minutes into the meeting a man among the onlookers stood and moved to open the hall door, letting in an armed and armored force of the Bryan Police Department, the Brazos County Sheriff’s Office, the Kerr County Sheriff’s Office, agents of the Texas district attorney, the Texas Rangers and the FBI.

“ In the end, at least 20 officers corralled, searched and fingerprinted all 60 meeting attendees, before seizing all cellphones and recording equipment in a Valentine’s Day 2015 raid on the Texas separatist group.” “

WorldNetDaily has the story of the crushing of political dissent by the State

” Authorities said Sunday night that Los Angeles police fatally shot a man on skid row during a struggle over an officer’s weapons.

Police officials offered a detailed account of what they say prompted the Sunday morning shooting, which was captured on video by a bystander.

Cmdr. Andrew Smith said officers assigned to the LAPD’s Central Division and Safer Cities Initiative — a task force focused on skid row — responded to the location about noon Sunday after receiving a 911 call reporting a possible robbery.

Smith said the officers approached the man and made contact with him, at which point he “began fighting and physically resisting the officers.” The officers attempted to take him into custody and at one point, attempted to use a Taser that Smith said was “ineffective.”

The man continued to resist police, Smith said, and the man and some of the officers fell to the ground.

” At some point in there, a struggle over one of the officer’s weapons occurred,” Smith said. “At that point an officer-involved shooting happened.”

Two officers and a sergeant fired at the man, who was pronounced dead at the scene, Smith said. It was unclear how many times the officers fired, although at least five shots can be heard on the video recording that captured the shooting.

No other gun was recovered at the scene, Smith said. It was unclear if the man had any other weapons among his possessions — investigators were still combing the scene late Sunday night.

The man has been tentatively identified, but Smith said it was unclear if he was homeless.”

” Here are the nine reports of police misconduct tracked for Thursday, February 26, 2015:

Palm Beach County, Florida: The sheriff’s department is being sued for withholding evidence and improperly investigating a fatal deputy-involved shooting. http://ow.ly/JG6KS

Lompoc, California: An officer was arrested for domestic violence. He is the fourth LPD officer arrested since 2014, and the second arrested for domestic violence in the last four months. http://ow.ly/JGiiY

Port Barre, Louisiana: An officer was arrested for simple battery against his ex-girlfriend. http://ow.ly/JGsAq

Update: Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (First reported 08-14-13): An arbitrator ruled that a former officer should be reinstated after being fired for misconduct. He had crashed a car while intoxicated. http://ow.ly/JGzjp

Update: Maywood, Illinois (First reported 02-18-12): A now-former officer’s official misconduct conviction was thrown out by a judge after a post-trial motion. He stood trial for sexual assault and official misconduct, but had been acquitted of the sexual assault charge. ow.ly/JGBek

St. Paul, Minnesota: The City settled a lawsuit for $23,000. Police pinned in a man’s car at a gas station, broke his car windows, pulled him out of the car—thereby disconnecting his dialysis—and threw him on the ground. Officers claim they pulled him out of the vehicle because he was attempting to swallow the narcotics they were trying to arrest him for dealing. The City has a policy of not admitting liability when settling lawsuits.http://ow.ly/JGChV

Lawrence, Kansas: An officer was arrested and suspended on suspicion of domestic battery. http://ow.ly/JH2Os

Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania: A sergeant was arrested for slapping his wife. http://ow.ly/JHf4s

Indian Lake, Texas: The police chief was charged with 14 counts of tampering. Allegedly, he lied about officers’ firearms qualifications in official documents. ow.ly/JHbI7

Ray Romano is an American actor, writer, stand-up comedian, and voiceover artist. Romano is best known both for his long running comedy series Everybody Loves Raymond on CBS, as well as his voiceover work as Manfred “Manny” the mammoth in the Ice Age movies. Raymond still does stand-up around the country, often appearing on the same bill as good friend and fellow comedian Kevin James.”

Happy Birthday Rory Gallagher And Larry Carlton

Today March 2 is the birthdate of two of the greatest guitarists to ever live : Rory Gallagher who , had he lived would have been celebrating his 67th birthday today and Larry Carlton who turns 67 . Happy Birthday to them both and thank you for your tremendous contributions to the world of music .

Tore Down – Germany 1971/72

” Gallagher was born in Ballyshannon, County Donegal; his father, Daniel, was employed by the Irish Electricity Supply Board, who were constructing a hydro-electric power plant on the Erne River above the town. The family moved, first to Derry City, where his younger brother Dónal was born in 1949, and then to Cork, where the two brothers were raised, and where Rory attended the North Monastery School. Their father had played the accordion and sang with the Tir Chonaill Ceile Band whilst in Donegal; their mother Monica was a singer and acted with the Abbey Players in Ballyshannon. The Theatre in Ballyshannon where Monica once acted is now called the Rory Gallagher Theatre.

Both sons were musically inclined and encouraged by their parents. At age nine, Gallagher received his first guitar from them. He built on his burgeoning ability on ukulele in teaching himself to play the guitar and perform at minor functions. After winning a talent contest when he was twelve, Gallagher began performing in his adolescence with both his acoustic guitar, and an electric guitar he bought with his prize money. However, it was his purchase three years later of a 1961 Fender Stratocaster for £100 that became his primary instrument and most associated with him for the span of his lifetime.

Gallagher was initially attracted to skiffleafter hearing Lonnie Donegan on the radio. Donegan frequently coveredblues and folk performers from the United States. He relied entirely on radio programs and television. Occasionally, the jazz programs from the BBC would play some blues numbers, and he slowly found some song books for guitar, where he found the names of the actual composers of blues pieces. While still in school, playing songs by Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran, he discovered his greatest influence in Muddy Waters. Subsequently, Gallagher began experimenting with folk, blues, and rock music. Unable to find or afford record albums, Gallagher stayed up late to hear Radio Luxembourg and AFN where the radio brought him his only exposure to the actual songwriters and musicians whose music moved him most. Influences he discovered, and cited as he progressed, included Woody Guthrie, Big Bill Broonzy, and Lead Belly. Initially, Gallagher struck out after just an acoustic sound. Singing and later using a brace for his harmonica, Gallagher taught himself to play slide guitar. Further, throughout the next few years of his musical development, Gallagher began learning to play alto saxophone, bass, mandolin, banjo, and the coral sitar with varying degrees of proficiency. By his mid-teens, he began experimenting heavily with different blues styles. “

His solo career took a twist in 1985 when he signed with MCA Master Series for an acoustic jazz album. The result was Alone / But Never Alone, which included a rendition of “The Lord’s Prayer“. During this time Carlton worked with musicians from around the world, including Japanese guitarist Hideshi Takatani. From 1985 to 1990 Carlton did various solo projects including the 1986 live Last Nite. He won another Grammy for his cover of the McDonald/Abrams song “Minute by Minute,” from the successful LP Discovery.”

” The Senate on Thursday unanimously passed a resolution welcoming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to America and endorsing his speech before a joint session of Congress.

Critics of the Obama administration view the unanimous approval as a rebuke to the White House and Democrats, who have vowed to boycott Netanyahu’s address and work to counter his warnings about the dangers of a nuclear Iran.

No Senate Democrats sponsored the measure, which attracted 50 Republican cosponsors. However, none attempted to block its passage, signaling that support for Israel and Netanyahu’s message has outweighed a pressure campaign by the Obama administration to sabotage the address.

“ The Senate warmly welcomes the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, on his visit to the United States, which provides a timely opportunity to reinforce the United State-Israel relationship,” the resolution states.

Congress “eagerly awaits the address of Prime Minister Netanyahu before a joint meeting of the United States Congress,” it continues.”

” Cat Zingano had a pattern of starting off slow in fights. Ronda Rousey is known for finishing fights early. At UFC 184, those two tendencies manifested themselves in the most literal way possible.

The champion defended her belt in just 14 seconds via—you guessed it—armbar.

In defense of the challenger, she was clearly trying to address her prior slow starts. At the opening bell, she charged across the cage with the reckless abandon of someone looking to make a statement.

However, it’s difficult to beat the champion at her own game. Once the bout hit the mat, Rousey wasted no time in isolating the arm and torquing her way to getting her hand raised for the 11th time in her career. “

” As you may know Hackers aren’t inherently bad — the word “hacker” doesn’t mean “criminal” or “bad guy.”, it means someone who tries to find solutions or alternative solutions to a problem. Geeks and tech writers often refer to “black hat,” “white hat,” and “gray hat” hackers. These terms define different groups of hackers based on their behavior.

A white hat hacker is someone working for corporations like anti-virus or firewall companies or in general trying to help society like most Anonymous Hackers.

A Gray Hat Hacker is someone who usually doesn’t work for any company and is neither good or bad, meaning that he hacks systems kinda illegally, but still not doing any harm to the system or anyone else.

A Black Hat Hacker is usually considered as the ‘typical’ bad guy who is doing harm, either financially or by just exploiting and hacking systems to push his own limits or better to day ego. “

” As it limps away, February will not be missed. With the average temperature for the month lingering around 24 degrees, some 11 degrees shy of normal by the National Weather Service’s calculation, this insult of a month looks as though it will clock in as the coldest recorded February in New York City since 1934. That is 81 years of weather. That is all the way back to the Depression, when there were so many more dire things to worry about than whether 7-Eleven had salt or whose turn it was to walk the dog.

That year, February averaged 19.9 degrees and included the lowest daily reading ever registered for New York: On Feb. 9 the mercury sank to a ridiculous 15 degrees below zero. “

” The unseasonable cold is expected to continue over much of the U.S., with some interruptions, and the latest GFS model forecast shows some snow for portions of all 50 states in the next seven days. (Graphic courtesy of Weatherbell.com, click for full-size). “

” Lasqueti is a small island between Vancouver and Vancouver Island, home to a little known community of off-gridders who take pride in their isolation from both mainstream culture and mainland Canada. In this short documentary film, a journalist from 16×9 News goes to meet some of Lasqueti’s characters and find out more about life on this beautiful land that time forgot.

With very little industry or economy, most of the residents live simply, taking what they need from the landand having next to no carbon footprint (and little need for money). The 2011 census recorded 426 people living in Lasqueti, who meet up to socialize in the island’s (one) bar and cafe.

Lasqueti also has a free store, where people can leave or collect items without any monetary exchange. Just one hour by boat from Vancouver island, Lasqueti doesn’t have a tourist industry, booming economy or any industry to speak of, but those who live there say that they enjoy the sense of timelessness, community, and freedom that their home provides.”

” Is your life worth protecting? If so, whose responsibility is it to protect it? … How can you rightfully ask another human being to risk his life to protect yours, when you will assume no responsibility yourself? “